Sword Art Online

[DarthEnderX]

Well, the first half of that is exactly what's going to happen. The second half, obviously not. Asuna is going to get into an argument with her mom because "some feelings can only be shown through fighting".

It started to look like this arc is dedicated to Asuna's personal development, but then when Kirito made his sudden appearance to save the day (which could hardly be called a surprise), this episode suddenly felt like it was slowly built only to give Kirito yet another moment to show his superior quality.

The point of the arc is obviously this guild fighting the boss, which Kirito obviously isn't going to do(since they're already at the party limit).

He's just going to hold off this entire guild while they do it.

Because Kirito is a chivalrous motherfucker.

Do we have the soundtrack for this already? I need that song that was playing during the beginning clash with the enemy guild.

There have been a couple really great songs in this season.

[Buffalobiian]

Kirito kakkoii! The timing of that taunt is marvellous.

[Kraco]

Episode 21 - HS





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Are those Sleeping Knights folks terminal coma patients or something? Perhaps not even coma necessarily but terminal disease patients nonetheless. Who knows, maybe they are even SAO players who couldn't be awoken, and the old helmets will be removed soon forcibly. It's a bit hard to understand the occasional melancholy and the general secrecy and urgency otherwise. Surely they can't just be something mundane like students soon graduating and moving into jobs, or people marrying, or whatever, and thus not having any time for games anymore. Yuuki seems like she might have lost an older sister, perhaps in the same accident (or SAO or heritable disease, whatever) that made her a patient, if that's the reality.

Not really an overly exciting boss fight otherwise. The fight against the other players in front of the doors was much better.

[MFauli]

Yuuki seems like she might have lost an older sister, perhaps in the same accident (or SAO or heritable disease, whatever) that made her a patient, if that's the reality.

lololo, youre too forgiving, Kraco. The ending of this episode reeks of some much, MUCH bigger bullshit. Like, Yuki REALLY is Asuna´s sister. I can just imagine it ... her long lost sister that even Asuna didn´t know about. Suddenly meeting inside SAO. Oh yeah, lets add on that somehow her mother sent the little sister away years ago for ... reasons! Haha.

[Kraco]

lololo, youre too forgiving, Kraco.

How am I supposed to finish this show if I don't obstinately keep giving it new chances, abandoning memories of all past failings? What else can man do against such recklessly bad writing?

[Buffalobiian]

I thought Yuuki was the only NPC, but all the others might be NPCs as well, like Yui is. In spring, they're all going to get cleaned up with a patch so they can't act freely (or at all) like they're currently doing. I don't know what the deal is with the whole Sister thing. Maybe Yui was Yuuki's sister or something. It's not like the little fairy on Kirito's shoulder was easily seen or recognisable.

[MasterOfMoogles]

I don't think NPCs log out.

[Buffalobiian]

Yeah, that threw me off.

[lelouch]

This isn't the show I signed up for.

[Kraco]

They haven't been giving any NPC vibes at all, if Yui is to be used as a reference. On the contrary they have interacted and talked like any players would, even if players in some dire situation (at least as far as their gaming is concerned). Besides, if they were NPCs about to get patched out, I'd say Yui would be quite terrified as well, and there's no way the master of everything Kirito wouldn't sort it all out.

[MFauli]

Patches, lol. The whole game is a mess of elements from different original games. There´s no consistency at all, you can use skills from other games, etc, etc. The whole point of the ending of the Aincrad-arc was that the code of SAO became public so that everyone could program their own world. Basically, our heroes are playing the most broken, unbalanced game in existence. A game nobody would actually play cause its so meaningless when there are no clear rules.

[DarthEnderX]

Are those Sleeping Knights folks terminal coma patients or something?

That's definitely the impression that I'm getting. That either Yuuki, or all of them are dying in the real world.

Not really an overly exciting boss fight otherwise. The fight against the other players in front of the doors was much better.

Agreed. The player battle was awesome. Most of this episode was pretty great because it was just fighting for over half of it.

And Kirito using his GGO skills to parry spells was freakin awesome.


Although, I'm guessing quite a chunk of time must have passed between the last arc and this one, because Kirito couldn't even swing Excalibur before. Now he wields it one-handed just fine.

This isn't the show I signed up for.

It hasn't been the show I signed up for since, like, the 10th episode.

Basically, our heroes are playing the most broken, unbalanced game in existence. A game nobody would actually play cause its so meaningless when there are no clear rules.

Tell that to everyone that plays Second Life, which is exactly what you just described.

[Buffalobiian]

Are those Sleeping Knights folks terminal coma patients or something?

Oooh... Sleeping Knights...

Okay, I'm in the "they're dying" camp now.

[NeoCybercoin]

Yeah I'm getting that vibe too. Maybe that Yuuki did have a sister who died in SAO and Asuna just looks like her. Thus calling her that made her think about her horrible death etc

[Buffalobiian]

Yeah I'm getting that vibe too. Maybe that Yuuki did have a sister who died in SAO

Sachi. Imagine that.

[NeoCybercoin]

That'd be something.

[MFauli]

Sachi. Imagine that.

And just by reading this, I KNOW that is is what´s going to happen :/

Asuna: "Kirito, it´s so sad. This girl I know had a sister named Sachi that was killed during the SAO incident."
Kirito: "Oh, her."
Asuna: *confused* "You know her?"
Kirito: "Yeah, she´s the girl I would have fucked if she hadn´t died. Wait, did I really just say that out aloud?"

[Kraco]

Episode 22 - HS






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I take absolutely no pride in my ability to predict plots. It's precisely because of that why Asuna's utter lack of foresight during this incident is so hilarious. Nobody's surprised Kirito guessed it all despite not having talked with any of the Sleeping Knights save for the exchange of a few words during the bout. Knowing the hospital was plausible, though, since he's basically building an RL interface for Yui that's partially overlapping the system the hospital has. He probably read a few articles at some point down the road.

All in all it was a bit strange Asuna became so invested in Sleeping Knights and totally forgot her old buddies. She must have really yearned to be genuinely needed. But then again, maybe all in the group do, being all the time shadowed by Kirito's perfection. Too bad she now must run back to Kirito to ask him to hand over Yui's system to Yuuki. Poor Yui.

[MasterOfMoogles]

While it's easy for the viewer to predict the plot, it seems pretty unreasonable to expect Asuna to come up with the answer. That isn't really the first thing you would assume when someone says they can't play anymore.

Kirito only figured it out because he researches VR tech and had probably heard of Medicuboid before.
Additionally, he realized in the fight that she had most likely played VR games for as long, if not longer, than he had based on her reaction time and how well she could move in the game. Since she wasn't in SAO, there is really only one option at that point.

[Kraco]

While it's easy for the viewer to predict the plot, it seems pretty unreasonable to expect Asuna to come up with the answer. That isn't really the first thing you would assume when someone says they can't play anymore.

No. We, the audience, didn't get much information at all of the Sleeping Knights. We only got scenes where Asuna was present, and even so only a small portion of all the time she spent when them. Asuna knew much more than we did. Despite that handicap the hints were so visible even a blind woman should have seen them.

They said and did much more than simply "we can't play anymore". You saw it as well.

Besides, I just said in my previous post that my plot prediction skills are poor at best, which is why I usually don't even try. When I have tried, my record of wrong guesses is long. That is a testament to how easy this was to foresee.